Guess who’s back, back by popular demand after a long hiatus from the writing world, Nathan Apolonio is back with another edition of the widely popular Nate’s Notes. I’m here to feed you with my knowledge of the league we all love so much. As the lead staff writer since Season 3, I’ve seen my fair share of IBL basketball, I’ve seen teams come and go, I’ve seen Dynasty’s put together and I’ve seen Dynasties crumble right before my eyes, so believe me when I say, I know what, I’m talking about. We are about to enter the second week of postseason play and this is shaping up to be a very intense/interesting post season to say the least. I’ll indulge you with the playoff picture from Division 1 and of Division 2 with Division 3 coming just a little later tonight.
In Division 1, the #1, #3, & #4 seeds have all moved on to the second round, the #2 seed FORMER division champions Washed Up, faltered in the quarter-final round and came up very short against the #7 seed The Pack. I think Washed Up took The Pack a little too lightly this time around. Last season, The Pack almost pulled off the upset as the #8 seed while playing Washed Up, but failed to do so which led to Washed Up moving on and claiming their second championship. This season I believe The Pack seized the opportunity and utilized their shooters and executed their game plan to perfection to come away with such a big win.
After reading this week’s edition of the new face of the Full Court Press “Mike Mic’d”; I noticed in Mike’s article he seemed a bit sour and neglected to show The Pack any type of love for pulling off the upset, so I’m here to give The Pack and GM Craig Crampton as my fellow writer Mike Criscione would say “3 slaps and a salute” for advancing to the second round and shocking the Division and the naysayers The Pack’s opponent in the next round will be the new favorites to capture their first division title the #3 seeded Knicee, Knicee advances to the second round after a 65-64 overtime scare in the quarterfinals after the #6 seeded Rebels gave Knicee everything they could handle and in reality would have won the game if they could have connected on their free throws. However that’s neither here nor there so I’ll move on.
The top half of the bracket we’ll see the #1 seed Cali Raisins take on the #4 seed Dino’s Finest, this is another intriguing matchup, the Raisins are the first team in my opinion to be a sleeper pick as the #1 seed. They handled the #8 seed Mile High in the first round with ease. They have the right personnel and a floor general in Jordan Ramos who is like no other. He is arguably the best Point Guard in the IBL. I know many dispute that claim but his team’s numbers don’t lie. He transformed the Raisins from a middle of the pack team in D2 & D3 to title contenders, this season he brought in a Division 1 team and they’ve been on a roll since their first game.
Dino’s Finest on the other hand has a core of proven players who have been to the top of the mountain, hoisted the gold ball and crave that elusive 2nd championship, riding the coat tails of their explosive floor general Larry Dew they’ll look to do just that. HOWEVER, as every other game in the IBL is, it’s hard to predict a winner because we’re never really sure who will show up for each team until the game starts, I feel the Cali Raisins have a legitimate shot at beating Dino and advancing to the second round. In round 1 Dino wasn’t favored to defeat the #5 seed Dynasty but came away with a convincing win, after playing solid defense. I feel Dino can win this game, if they can play that aggressive style of defense. Another factor is if Dino is without the services of their big man Paul Miller, Miller has played in a few games this season, but due to his size and shot blocking ability to go with David Layne’s ability to clog the paint and body the opposing teams post player, I can see Dino coming away with the win. This one is tough to call due to the excellent guard play as Mike Mic’d stated this is the equivalent to CP3 vs. Derrick Rose, an all around point guard who makes everyone around him better in Ramos and an explosive scoring guard in Dino’s Larry Dew.
Final Word:
I see Knicee coming out on top in their match-up with The Pack, Knicee is too deep in the middle, they have 3 interchangeable big men (J.Devine, Dewayne O’Neal & Odell Howard) their SF is a ticking time bomb when it comes to scoring, Kenneth Ubom and their guards (Reggie Smith & Ray Hong) aren’t slouches by any stretch of the imagination. At the end of the day Knicee is too deep and just too big down low, their first round match-up was a wakeup call and look for Kenneth Ubom to have an inspired game, and carry his team into the Finals. In a perfect world if all the stars aligned and The Pack and their shooters (CJ Schrader and Luke Finalet) got hot I’d give this team a chance. Knicee will win this game purely off second chance opportunities; they’ll also dominate in the battle of the boards.
In the #1 vs. #4 matchup, I see Dino’s Finest advancing to the Finals and taking the crown again as Larry Dew promised in his Week 7 interview, looking back at the archives, and the last time Washed Up didn’t win the championship Dino wound up as the eventual champions, so I’ll hold Larry Dew to his promise and count on Dino to advance past this game and into the finals. Even though it won’t be the easiest game, the Raisins won’t be an easy task; they’ve played many games down to the wire and are just a cohesive unit.
In Division 2, the brackets are finally set. After their Week 2 loss to Wonton Soup, the divisions reigning champions UNDFTD will tip-off the postseason as the #1 overall seed in the division for a second consecutive season. They had seemed to hit the proverbial brick wall in Week 2 with their convincing loss to the #2 seed Wonton Soup but soon after got things rolling once again as the season progressed. They embark on their road to the repeat with a first round matchup against the #8 seed Top Dawgz, the same Top Dawgz team that seemed to have them on the ropes in their Week 6 matchup. Look for UNDFTD to advance past the #8 seed as they are just too deep to even fathom an upset taking place. The winner of this game will then take on the winner of the #4 vs. #5 game when Quiksilver takes on Primetime.
Both of these teams have a division title under their belt, Quiksilver captured the first ever Division 2 championship in season 2 and Primetime captured their golden ball in Season 7, so experience is not lacking. Both these teams have the necessary ingredients to CONTEND for the division’s championship. Quiksilver has been built this season to dethrone the champs of UNDFTD, and although they pack a pesky punch in Johnny Earl (16.6 ppg), Jaime Villalobos (15.0 ppg) and Julius Clark (14.8 ppg) , they also boast a slightly unproductive bench (19.8 ppg). Primetime is in the same category, their pesky punch is the play of C Mark Davison (26.8 ppg) and G Chris Escoto (19.2ppg) who are the teams leading scorers. An interesting game is upon us if all these things on paper actually play out on the court.
On the bottom half of the bracket, we have #3 Special Delivery taking on the #6 seed Team 2k, Special Delivery has the edge in this game due to the amazing point guard play of their lead guard Sammeon Waller, Waller is easily a top 3 PG in the IBL regardless of division, he makes his teammates better, and can score in bunches if needed. Team 2k is an athletic bunch, very athletic, they’ve crept into the post season as the #6 seed but they’re very capable of pulling off a first round upset. However I don’t see it happening, Team 2k at times seem to be very dense offensively, and have long dry spells while Special Delivery is known to score in bunches. I say Special Delivery will take control of this game in the second half and advance into the semi finals.
The #2 vs. #7 game is by far the match-up I’m, looking forward to seeing, it pits a Wonton Soup team, that once seemed to be a virtual shoe in to run the table to the championship after man handling UNDFTD earlier in the season, against a HighLife team that has solved all personnel issues that nagged them for the majority of the season. The guard play of Sango Niang and Chris Fowler will be really crucial if High Life wants any shot of winning this game. They’ll also need big man Rudy Williams to show up and be an inside presence. For Wonton Soup, Hakeem Nance is their alpha dog, their go to guy the source of their offense. Nance leads the team in scoring and is a pest for opposing guards with his play and trash talking. Wonton is coming off a loss to a convincing loss to Primetime who basically used a fast break style of play to defeat them. High Life utilizes the same style of play and I would place Wonton on upset alert. The deciding factor in this game is the play of Aaron Sanchez, and Shawn McAllister, Sanchez is a beast on the boards and is regaining his old form of double double machine, while McAllister is instant offense off the bench. If those two players play a solid game, Wonton Soup will move on to the next round for a matchup with Special Delivery.
The Hypothetical Matchup of Wonton & Special Delivery would be an instant IBL classic, the teams have played twice this season with Special Delivery coming away with the first win and Wonton narrowly escaping with a 1 point win in Week 9 after they blew a 24 point first half lead. Hypothetically speaking, I feel the that Special Delivery has the formula to pull off what would not be deemed as an upset, but to come away with a win to secure a spot in the championship game. However Wonton is fully aware that Special Delivery is capable of beating them and erasing any type of lead they build so they’ll be very focused for this game.
Final Word:
At the end of the day we will see two team’s stand on top ready to battle for the divisions ultimate prize next week, and I would be discrediting all 8 teams if I had to pick just two. HOWEVER I will do just that, my prediction for the two teams are #1 UNDFTD and #3 Special Delivery.
-Nathan Apolonio
@50ShadesofNate
IBL Full Court Press 